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Credit: Martha Cerna / KENS 5

Every bit the characters they play, anime fans inhabited three floors of the Rivercenter Marriott Hotel for the San Japan 4TW convention. Panels (Airsoft for Cosplay, Ocarinas: From Aztecs to Zelda, Dummies for geniuses, Steampunk on a budget, How to be a Dungeon Master, etc.), demonstrations , vendor booths offered colorful diversions for the costumed participants. Each copping a specific personality-driven pose. Fascinating.

They are not fooling around. The vixens vamp it up, the heroes are ruggedly dashing, and the evil characters dark and brooding (and often illicit hisses from the crowd as they pass.) It's an amazing amount of fun that will continue through Sunday. (If you go, check out the steampunk group's awesome costumes. They are creatively and meticulously detailed. Wow!